Victory for Animals Brutalized in North Carolina Lab

Investigation Victory: Just one week after PETA released the results of its
shocking undercover investigation of North Carolina–based contract animal
testing facility Professional Laboratory and Research Services, Inc. (PLRS) and
filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), PLRS is
surrendering nearly 200 dogs and dozens of cats and shutting its doors for good.
This is a monumental victory and the first time that a laboratory has been
forced to surrender animals and close under pressure on the heels of a PETA
investigation and while facing a formal USDA investigation.

For nine months, a PETA investigator worked undercover inside the filthy,
deafeningly loud kennels of Professional Laboratory and Research Services, Inc.
(PLRS). Inconspicuously tucked away in rural North Carolina, PLRS takes money
from huge pharmaceutical companies to test insecticides and other chemicals used
in companion animal products. Bayer, Eli Lilly, Novartis, Schering-Plough (now
Merck), Sergeant's, Wellmark, and Merial, the maker of Frontline flea and tick
products, are some of the corporations that have paid PLRS to force-feed
experimental compounds to dogs and cats and smear chemicals onto the animals'
skin.

PETA's investigator found that toxicity tests were just part of what the
animals endured. Laboratory workers appeared to despise the animals in their
care—they yelled and cursed at cowering dogs and cats, calling them "asshole,"
"motherfuckers," and "bitch"; used pressure hoses to spray water—as well as
bleach and other harsh chemicals—on them; and dragged dogs through the facility
who were too frightened to walk.

Video evidence shows that terrified cats were pulled from cages by the scruff
of the neck while workers screamed in their faces and that a cat was viciously
slammed into the metal door of a cage. One worker grabbed a cat and pushed him
against a chain-link fence. When the cat fearfully clutched at the fencing with
his claws, the worker jerked him off the fencing, saying she hoped that the
cat's nails had been ripped out.

Dogs at PLRS may spend years in cages, either to be used repeatedly in tests
or to be kept infested with worms for some future study. They are just like the
dogs we share our homes with, but they live day in, day out without exercise or
enrichment, companionship, a scratch behind the ears, or even a kind word from
the only people they ever see.

Many dogs had raw, oozing sores from being forced to live constantly on wet
concrete, often in pools of their own urine and waste. Workers didn't even move
the dogs when they pressure-sprayed the runs, frightening the animals; soaking
them with water, bleach, and soap; and exposing already painful sores to harsh,
irritating chemicals.

PLRS didn't bother to keep a veterinarian on staff. Instead, it chose to
bring its primary veterinarian in for only one hour most weeks. Animals endured
bloody feces, worm infestations, oozing sores, abscessed teeth, hematomas, and
pus- and blood-filled infections without receiving adequate veterinary
examinations and treatment. Sometimes, the conditions were ineffectively handled
by workers who had no credentials or veterinary training.

After a supervisor gave one dog an anesthetic that was past its expiration
date (and likely administered too little of it), the supervisor pulled out one
of the animal's teeth with a pair of pliers. The dog trembled and twitched in
apparent pain, and the supervisor continued with the procedure despite the dog's
obvious reaction. Workers repeatedly cut into one dog's tender, blood-filled
ear, draining blood and pus but never treating the underlying cause of the dog's
suffering and apparently causing the ear to become infected.

Dogs were intentionally subjected to worm infestations for tests, but
conditions were so sloppy that dogs who weren't supposed to be part of the study
also became infested and were then left untreated.

In one test commissioned by a corporation whose products are sold in grocery
and drug stores nationwide, a chemical was applied to the necks of 57 cats. The
cats immediately suffered seizures, foamed at the mouth, lost vision, and bled
from their noses. Despite this, the substance was put on the cats a second time
the very same day.

To cut costs, PLRS killed nearly 100 cats, rabbits, and dogs. The company had
decided that some of these animals' six daily cups of food were too expensive.

Federal oversight of horrendous facilities such as PLRS is virtually
nonexistent. In preparation for a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
inspector's annual visit, which PLRS staff knew to expect in June or July, PLRS
employees painted over the rusty surfaces that the USDA had warned them about
the previous year and reported that ailing animals had conditions that might
merit veterinary care—which the facility's attending veterinarian reportedly
advised she would not provide—so that PLRS staff would be "covered" from blame
should the inspector inquire about the animals' condition. The inspector's 2010
visit to PLRS, which housed approximately 400 animals at the time, lasted two
hours and 15 minutes.

PETA has filed complaints with federal and state agencies, the Occupational
Safety and Health Administration, and local law-enforcement authorities.

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